A boat up the Mekong to China

Whoa. It\\\'s been a while since I\\\'ve updated so I\\\'ll try to condense the last few weeks into one entry. From Laos we took a boat to the Thai border. It took two days and was quite UNcomfortable (this coming from a person who can sleep on command in almost any situation). This particular boat goes about 20km/hour and can handle about 50 tourists and their mountain of backpacks (bikes get strapped to the roof). We eventually got to good ole\\\' Thailand with it\\\'s 15 baht watermelons and 10 baht soymilks, much missed in Laos. We rode from Chiang Klong up and along the Mekong to Chiang Saen about 60km to a port were you can then take a boat to China.

I put a bunch of pictures on my other website. So, if you want to see them, first open a new window (ctrl+N) and then paste the link below in the address bar. Paste this into your browser:

http://statravel.mytripjournal.com/brettbybike

--Below is a semi-boring description of how to get a boat to China from Thailand-- (this info is for during the dry season; The problems mentioned below are probably not a factor from June to February)

Where can I get a boat from?
Chiang Saen, the Golden Triangle village (can\\\'t remember the name ), Chiang Klong (probably, not sure). You will land in Guanlei, Yunnan.

How much will it cost?
From 300-600RMB ($37-$74 (it should be cheaper from China, as it\\\'s downstream)) for one-way passage. We bargained to 350 if it took 3 days, 500 if it took more. I suppose when the water is up the prices come down. Going to Thailand: I heard the Meimei Cafe in Jinghong China sells a \\\"ticket\\\" for the boats for 420RMB, but they are doing nothing more than giving you the name of a boat to go get on and collecting their commission. Just go to Guanlei (the port in China) and walk around on the dock and someone will figure you want to go to Thailand. Cheaper.

How long will it take?
Anywhere from 2 days to 12 days. It\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s all dependent on the whether and when China opens the dam to increase the water level (the dam water is not a factor from July to February). When the water is high (meaning you don\\\'t get beached or drive really slow the boats can do a trip (there-and-back) in 3 days). After one day of slow going our captain came back to the shirtless foreigner area of the boat and confered to us that \\\"I\\\'m sorry boys it looks like it\\\'ll take 8-10 days to reach China.\\\" But, the next day the water apparently rose so we could full-throttle it (12km/hour) upriver to China; reaching Guanlei in 3 days exactly.

When do the boats leave?
Whenever they reload Thai cargo (mostly fruit) destined for China. Their is no schedule of sorts just boats showing up in clumps when the water level rises sufficiently so they can unbeach themselves and continue to China.

What\\\'s it like? what do you do on the boat?
Read. Work on your sunburn. Sleep. Take pictures.

What do I eat?
You get to eat two round meals with the crew per day. There is also the option of buying a huge, freshly shot lizard from Lao hunters on the bank of the river (as our cook did).

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I\\\'m typing this entry from Jinghong, Yunnan a pleasant enough place we\\\'ve been settled for the last two days. Tommorow we\\\'ll head either west or north in search of the real source of Pu\\\'er tea. It seems the mecca for Pu\\\'er tea should be the city of Pu\\\'er, but we\\\'ve heard differently that it might be in some village called Menghai that\\\'s west of here. I\\\'ll definitely show you pics of that; 1500 year old pu\\\'er trees, apparently. Initial impressions of China: super cheap. More so than Laos or Thailand. I even thought of titling this blog entry \\\"I just can\\\'t spend 10 dollars a day.\\\" Traveling with someone makes your accomodation much more plush and cheap. Here in Jinghong we lucked out in finding a brand-new hotel (we peeled the decal off the big TV and broke in the AC) all for 50RMB/night ($6). Other observations, I thought being a vegetarian would be tougher out here in the boonies, but a meal hasn\\\'t passed where I haven\\\'t been stuffed and satisfied. A lot of braised eggplant and stirfried cabbage with blackened hot peppers. And of course the other other white meat--tofu.